Meejin Yoon and Eric H&#182;weler work out of an office in an 1893 building in downtown Boston.

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Courtesy Höweler + Yoon Architecture

Meejin Yoon and Eric Höweler work out of an office in an 1893 building in downtown Boston.

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Höweler + Yoon

“I think if we did house after house after house, commercial interior after commercial interior after commercial interior, public space after public space after public space, I think we would get bored.” (Meejin Yoon)

“With residential you can think about the handle, the drawer, the way the sun will rise. Residential allows you to do architecture at a much more personal, intimate scale…It’s a lot of work, because it’s so personal.” (Meejin Yoon)

“I think we’re more open to strange programs. We have no typical [program]—we’re always starting from scratch…We’re also happy to jump on a plane.” (Eric Höweler)

Pigeonholing Meejin Yoon and Eric Höweler, AIA, LEED AP, seems downright impossible—and that’s exactly how they want it. “We’re all over the place,” Höweler says of the project types their firm, Höweler + Yoon Architecture, designs. The married, Boston-based duo has worked on public spaces, commercial interiors, houses, institutional buildings, and more, throwing themselves into researching each commission. “When a project seems challenging or interesting in some way, we say yes,” Yoon explains.

Höweler and Yoon met as undergraduates at Cornell, and their different backgrounds contribute to their diverse practice. Höweler grew up in Colombia and Thailand, and worked at Kohn Pedersen Fox and Diller + Scofidio (now Diller Scofidio + Renfro) before joining forces with Yoon, a Seoul, Korea, native raised in the United States. Yoon’s work experience at Dean/Wolf Architects sparked her interest in residential design. “I love residential because you can get really, really fine-scaled,” she says. “It’s a very intimate type of work.” She and Höweler have just completed a house in Arlington, Va., and are working on a multiphased single-family renovation in Boston.

The couple and their 19-month-old daughter live in a downtown Boston loft, just a block from their office. Both teach part time, which Höweler says informs their architecture: “Teaching does keep us on our toes, I think, in the practice.”